Graduating from College

Being a board member of Allegany College of Maryland, I have the distinction of being the part of tomorrow's graduation ceremonies.  It is a wonderful accomplishment for the graduates as well as their professors and instructors.

I have been holding onto an article that I received a few weeks ago from my daughter.  The article was written by Charles Wheelan and was published in the Wall Street Journal on April 30th; it is entitled, "10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You."  Some of the 10 that are worth sharing are as follows:

2) Some of your worst days are ahead of you - you will face periods of self-doubt and failure, but work through them.

3) As you attempt to change the world, don't make things worse - do the right thing; you don't have to cure cancer but don't spread it either. 

6) Read obituaries - these are short biographies that demonstrate that successful people rarely lead linear lives. 

7) Your parents don't want what's best for you - they want what's good for you.  As parents we want what is safe and comfortable; sometimes you have to take risks. 

9) It's all borrowed time - don't take anything for granted; live life to the fullest. 

10) Don't try to be great - the less you think about being great the more likely it is to happen and being solid isn't bad.

Congratulations to all of the graduates tomorrow.  God speed.

The Double Edged Sword

Yesterday, I read an article in Compliance Today magazine entitled, "The role of compliance in the quest to improve (the) patient experience."   The gist of the article is that hospitals need to be careful with the inducements that we provide in forgiveness of financial obligations beyond financial hardship or purchasing items or services on behalf of the patient.  This is a new area of concern that our compliance officer is addressing as our doctors and nurses work to get patients well enough to be discharged from the acute care and into the most appropriate care setting.  In some cases, we provide items and services for the patient to facilitate the transition into the alternate care setting.  As the article states, "while striving to improve (the) patient experience, we must recognize the legal limitations....."  Sound advice in this era of false claims, anti-kickback violations and over payment for services.  The article is worth the read in this ever changing complex field of health care.

Top Ten Priorities for Hospitals

Health Leaders magazine just released the 2012 CEO Survey results as to the priorities for hospitals and health systems around the country for the next three years.  The list is as follows:

1) Payment Reform

2) Patient Satisfaction

3) Cost Reduction

4) Quality and Safety

5) Physician Hospital Alignment

6) Clinical Information Technology

7) Leadership and Organizational Development

8) Regulatory Issues (Stark Laws, HIPAA, Anti-trust, etc.)

9) Revenue Cycle

10) Capital Dollars

How does the list of priorities stack up against the WMHS?  Our list would be very similar, but there would be a few minor changes.

1) Quality and Safety (the safe delivery of care to the patient has to be our first priority)

2) Payment Reform (success working under a new payment methodology is critical)

3) Patient Satisfaction (again, patient centered is key to our continued success)

4) Cost Reduction (we have to reduce cost, improve quality and focus on the health of our population--with better quality you get reduced cost)

5) Revenue Cycle (no margin, no mission)

6) Leadership and OD (critical thinking skills have to be instilled in all of our leaders and especially our bedside clinicians and staff)

7) Clinical Information Technology (not as much a priority because it is well in hand by our CIO and his team)

8) Physician Hospital Alignment (the 12 physician members of the President's Clinical Quality Council are helping greatly in this area)

9)Regulatory Issues (our compliance officer ensures that we are always compliant with laws & regulations)

10) Capital Dollars (a great deal of emphasis on fundraising, planning and best use of limited dollars)

 

The order may change over the next three years but these are our key issues today and going forward.

Physician Award Winners

Last Friday evening, we celebrated and honored the members of our medical staff at WMHS.  The Gala is held each May to acknowledge and thank our physicians, dentists and advanced practice professionals.  We also select a physician of the year, a lifetime achievement awardee and a mane ictum (quick impact) awardee all from the medical staff.  We had 33 different physicians nominated for the three awards.  The decision was extremely difficult.   The winners were:

Mane Ictum Award: Dr. Aman Dalal, Infectious Disease

Physician of the Year: Dr. Bill Lamm, Hospital Medicine

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Jim Raver, Hospital Medicine and Chief Medical Officer (Retired)

Congratulations and thank you for your dedication to our patients and staff.

A "Shocking" Incident

On Saturday morning I was at the gym and CNN was on one of the televisions.  I don't normally watch CNN and now with good reason.  CNN was reporting on the story regarding Mitt Romney as a 17-year- old allegedly being party to holding down a fellow high school  student with long hair who was reportedly effeminate and cutting his hair.  Now for the best part, the reporter actually called it a shocking incident.  Give me a break.  Wrong, yes.  Bully-like, certainly, boys being boys back in 1965, you bet.  I was 17 in the early seventies and doing stupid things was par for the course on any given day.  The bias of today's media is unbelievable on both the left and the right.  What happened to reporters giving us the news in a direct forthright manner and saving the bias for the general public?  For a CNN reporter to call the Romney incident shocking is absurd.  The horrific shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado by a couple of 17-year-olds was shocking; the alleged Mitt Romney incident was stupid.  Even the family of the now deceased victim whose hair was cut is appalled that the incident is being used for political purposes.  It is now become very clear that this Presidential Campaign is going to be quite a ride.

No More Picking the Feds This Week

It's time to comment on the upcoming special legislative session scheduled next week to deal with a single issue: to raise taxes on Marylanders.  There are reasons on both sides of the aisle not to allow the doomsday budget to take effect this fiscal year.   However, my blog is about the absurdity of our elected leaders, all from the same party (Democrats), not finalizing the budget, which includes raising taxes, during the regular session.  Instead, many of these senators and delegates, who will be running for re-election in 2 years, will have to vote to raise taxes in a spotlighted special session.  This is a great time for any prospective challenger to begin preparing his or her campaign.  Maryland, according to Governor O'Malley, has some of the lowest taxes in the country.  Really?  By raising the state income taxes to almost 9% that will place Maryland in the top 10 of states with the highest state and local income taxes.  I guess the good news is that we don't live in France.  Their newly elected President wants to raise taxes up to 75%.  Get ready for the brain drain from France.

The Efficiency of Government

Every day I pass by an electric typewriter that sits outside my office.  I finally stopped and asked why do we continue to have a typewriter in our work area.  The response was that we could probably move it to the Mailroom, but we use it with some frequency. What? Huh? Really?  A typewriter used frequently in 2012.  What work product generated by this health system could possibly require the use of a typewriter?  Are you ready for this?  THE GOVERNMENT.  There are a number of forms that we have to complete and send to the Federal Government that can only be typed.  Need I say more?  There are Federal Government requirements that exist for health care related to meaningful use and an industry wide conversion to electronic "everything" by this same government that continues to require forms be typewritten.  The good news is that the instances requiring typewritten forms continue to decline, but they are not yet eliminated.  Also, the typewriter has now found its new home in the Mailroom.  Next stop, a museum.